Passive Wind Speed Measurement through Image Analysis

Cross-wind speed is a key factor in computing a ballistic solution, particularly at long ranges. Reading cross-wind is one of the most difficult jobs of a marksman. Current automated cross-wind sensors are too large and expensive for large scale deployments. This effort focuses on developing a passive-optical-imagery-based software application for computing the cross-wind speed. Being software based, it could use existing cameras, optics, and computing hardware, making it inexpensive and easy to deploy. For scenarios where such existing equipment is unavailable, a minimum-cost kit consisting of a camera, optics, and compute device will also be specified to host our solution; the required camera and computation may potentially be provided by a standard smartphone. This technology will be integrated with fire control systems to provide the wind direction and magnitude to a ballistic solution algorithm to increase accuracy. EM Photonics has been developing image processing algorithms for over a decade. We have developed applications for mitigating and measuring atmospheric turbulence along a path. This application, ATCOM, will be leveraged throughout this effort. We also have the expertise to plan and conduct both the data collection efforts and live-fire tests that will form a key part of this effort.